FOCUS ON RECOVERY

Pipeline politics can’t be allowed to overshadow what needs to be done in the wake of the leak that dumped 200,000 litres of oil into the North Saskatchewan River a week ago.

The incident is bolstering opposition to new pipelines and prompting politicians like Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Alberta’s Rachel Notley to defend pipeline safety. Though we happen to agree with them that pipelines are way safer than oil trains, at this moment, really, who cares?

Let’s shelve that fractious debate for another day and instead focus on the cleanup, ensuring thousands of affected people have access to clean drinking water and on minimizing the damage to wildlife and the environment.

While that crucial work is undertaken we also need investigators to quickly determine why this massive leak happened, so a similar incident can be prevented elsewhere.

Beyond that, all the talk of pipeline safety versus oil trains — indeed the bigger debate about the use of dirty fossil fuels like oil — is inappropriate when up to 70,000 Saskatchewan people face significant restrictions on daily water use and are concerned about possible health impacts.

Since the leak from the Husky Energy pipeline near Maidstone in west central Saskatchewan, the cities of North Battleford and Prince Albert have had to stop drawing on the river for their water supply and are using alternate sources.

Prince Albert has declared a state of emergency and is operating on water reserves. A 30-kilometre flexible pipe to the South Saskatchewan River was scheduled to be operational Wednesday, allowing an alternative temporary water supply to be used. However, that “fix” will only last until freeze-up.

In addition to conserving what safe drinking water there is, urban residents, farmers, First Nations and recreational users have been advised by the provincial government to not swim, wakeboard or water ski in the river or eat fish they catch from it. Livestock and pets should also be kept away from the water.

Though the reported toll on wildlife has been light thus far, that’s expected to change in the coming days, with the carcasses of dead birds, animals and fish becoming more evident.

Since some of the oil has sunk to the bottom of the river it could take several weeks or months to determine when the water is safe.

Husky has already promised to cover the damages from this incident, as it should.

Given the disruption to communities, businesses and the environment, the impact of the leak could be extensive and expensive.